Das Bedürfnis e.V. is a non-profit organization dedicated to the arts and culture. Its goal is to adapt underutilized urban space for cultural uses. The first task was to turn the former Bedürfnisanstalt in Halle’s southern city center into a venue for events and exhibitions. As a venue for public dialogue and projects, the group strives to promote participation and remove barriers for the urban society.

The association required a visual image in order to establish itself in the fast evolving urban fabric with a strong recognition value. The mission of Bedürfnis e.V. was to share the program, the cultural self-image, and all contents with a large audience as clearly, easily, and without barriers as feasible.

The Communication Design program at Trier University of Applied Sciences once again hosted an exhibition at the end of the 2024/2025 winter semester.
On Friday, February 7 and Saturday, February 8, 2025, student works from the fields of three-dimensional design, book design, typography, digital media, drawing, transmedia photography and artistic experiments were presented.

The associated visual identity was developed by a Bachelor's module in the current winter semester. The aim was to bridge the gap between effective public event design, creative experimentation and a sense of depth. The students were supported in developing a holistic message and dealing with questions about the target group, atmosphere and current trends and discourses in design, as well as adopting bold perspectives.

Trier University of Applied Sciences is characterized by a familial atmosphere in which students support each other and grow together. They benefit from cross-media and practice-oriented teaching that encourages them to break out of the mold, go their own way and develop their own signature style. It is precisely this attitude that shapes the event's identity: The design relies on an energetic, eye-catching aesthetic that takes up space and radiates positivity.

The result is a poster series that was photographically staged for the associated social media presence and thus underlines the core idea of an experimental approach. It is also reflected in the deliberate choice of unusual forms of presentation that make the design stand out from the digital and analog environment.
The tasks also included designing and implementing the signage system during the event, adapting the concept for various other media such as invitations and facade banners, promotion, set-up and media follow-up. In this way, the concept could not only be experienced visually, but also tested in its practical implementation as a flexible and multi-layered design system.

The text is set in Referenz Grotesk (Stefanie Schwarz, Dirk Wachowiak). For headlines a second font is used – Trier Display – which was also created by Dirk Wachowiak, but is still a work in progress and is currently being tested and used specifically for poster applications at the university. The exhibition team was made of Adriana Cevallos Acosta, Lea Cyriax, Muriel Juchem, Susanna Meninno, and Fabian Veit. The project was supervised by Julia Schygulla, M.A.

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Baden-Württemberg is a German state (Land) in Southwest Germany, east of the Rhine, which forms the southern part of Germany's western border with France. The Department of State Marketing and Events held a competition for promoting the Baden-Württemberg, and the contract was won by local agency Jung von Matt/NECKAR, who, in October 2021, launched the identity, website, and slogan: “The Länd”.

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In a discussion about the non-linguistic use of diacritics, Jens Kutilek described the tongue-in-cheek spelling of the campaign:

In case of “The Länd”, it works for me (and is actually somewhat funny) because Land is written the same way in German and English, and adding the diaeresis actually causes German readers to pronounce the word as they would speaking English, i.e. [lɑnt] → [lent]. And the land Baden-Württemberg is called “Ländle” [ˈlɛntlə] (a diminutive) in the local dialect. Trying to transfer that dialect nickname onto the big international stage of English is a bit of self-deprecating humour.

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The core typeface that Jung von Matt chose is quite local, too: Referenz Grotesk, designed by Stuttgart-based Stefanie Schwarz and Dirk Wachowiak and issued the year before the campaign by Sudtipos (a unusual German release from the South American foundry). Referenz is derived from ABK Stuttgart, their custom typeface for the Stuttgart State Academy of Art and Design, which referenced over a century of type related to the school, especially the work of F.H. Ernst Schneidler and Imre Reiner. A callback to the stair-step ‘E’ in Schneidler and Schneider-Antiqua can be seen in “THE LÄND”.

Source: www.stefanieschwarz-graphicdesign.de License: All Rights Reserved.

The supporting typeface, EB Garamond, isn’t home grown. They could have picked the very similar Sabon, from German designer Jan Tschichold, but the convenience of an open source font may have won out over a type palette with fully local connections.

Both typefaces, combined with a consistent yellow and black color scheme, form a strong visual identity that pervades the website, merchandise, social media graphics, printed signs, and pop-up kiosks.

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